A Book Review of Jessica Zafra's Womenagerie

A Book Review of Jessica Zafra's Womenagerie
By Anne Mariel dG. Mañago


Introduction


Womenagerie and other Tales from the the Front is a collection of Jessica Zafra's earlier columns in Woman Today magazine. It includes “Portraits”, “Urban Nightmares”, ”Boys and Girls”, ”Greek Tragedy” and ” It’s An Ad Ad Ad Ad World”

Jessica Zafra was born and raised in Manila. She attended St.Theresa's College, Quezon City, Philippine Science High School, and the University of the Philippines where she majored in Comparative Literature. Jessica is a three-time Palanca Award winner. Her column "Twisted" appears thrice weekly in Today. She has two books, Manananggal Terrorizes Manila (1992), her first collection of short stories, and Twisted (1995)--a selection of her column pieces. She has weekly radio program weekend talks at the Ayala Museum. She is a professional writer; she writes for a living she supports herself entirely by selling articles. Her work is by nature commercial.

Summary of Content


This book is just a collection of Jessica’s Journals. It includes different characters in each journal she wrote. This book review will only focus on selected journals which includes the following:

Profile of a Modern Woman
Portraits of the Artist Among Oysters and Coke
Interview with a Jock
Real People, An Endangered Species
A Catholic-School Childhood

The “Profile of a Modern Woman” is all about a girl named Monica who lives her life like a soap opera in which she plays all the roles. Her background is in the theatre. For a living, she does something which has to do with public relations. She often describes herself as a child of the Sixties, she loves singing in retro-rock pubs and loves watching movies released in Beta-videocassette format. She is generous and thoughtful, she’s always ready to do you a favor even if you’re not yet asking for it. The theme of this journal is all about knowing somebody not by the way she lives or how she do things, it’s about knowing somebody better. Even though, she’s different from a common woman, if you will look at her at a distinct way, you will still appreciate her just like everyone else. She is as strange as a fiction but still a good person.

The “Portraits of the Artist Among Oysters and Coke” is all about an ordinary girl who do things in her own way. Her name is Stella. She is an artist and she already won different awards from several contests and has done many achievements. She’s a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. She usually goes to the pool just to communicate with her unconscious. Sometimes, she’s in the Ayala Museum, teaching art classes. She is a firm believer in classical training. Being a woman doesn’t affect her profession even though many believe that men are better artists than women. The theme talks about doing what you want even though there are several things that prevent you from doing it. You have to be optimistic enough to achieve your goals. It’s not how hard your goal is or how many obstacles you need to go through but how you perform well and how you enjoy what you are doing.

The “Interview With The Jock” is all about a guy named Samboy. He’s a famous basketball player and people idolized him. Others consider him a role model for the youth. He has a good life and enjoys what he’s doing. On the other side of his career are fractures, broken bones and concussions. But these things don’t bother him. If something bad happens to him, then so be it. The theme of this journal is about enjoying life the way you want to. Even though playing basketball might give him undesirable consequences, he still continues to play because this sport makes him happy and contented.

The “Real People, An Endangered Species” is all about how Jessica sees things in her own different way. One situation is when a wife didn’t get angry with her husband who went home with his clothes filthy and stained. For her, the wife would’ve bawled out her stupid husband. Another situation depicts a child who went home with a black eye and a torn shirt. Instead of seeking revenge, she just hugged her son and gave him milk. Those are just some of her examples of situations in which people don’t act like human being. For her, they are not real people. This journal explains how people change as time passes by. It’s not about how different they behave but how they show their care for others.

The “A Catholic-School Childhood” is about Jessica’s life when she was just studying. No wonder, she really enjoyed her elementary days. This is when she experienced unexpected things because of her hard-headedness. This journal talks about how happy your childhood is. In this stage, you will start to appreciate life. You’ll meet different persons and experience several things. It’s not about how good your childhood life is, it’s about how you enjoy and appreciate every single moment of being a child.

Analysis of Text


Jessica’s journals show how people are different from each other. She showed different situations that clearly explains the attitudes of the personas. I may say that she is not just a good writer but she caught the readers’ attentions by simply doing journals in her own way. Unlike others whose stories turn out the same, she did unique stories but are based in true experiences. She just let her hand write whatever is in her mind. It's like she is really free of expressing what she wants through her writings.

Evaluation of the Text


The journals made an impact on me because all of them are based on true experiences although some criticisms are based on her opinions. The journals explain that everyone around me is not the same. They have different attitudes, values and personalities. People can be defined on how they do things or how they live their life. they can be seen in their own little way. People are not judged by their simple mistakes but by what they’re doing to make great things better. For me, even though the journals have made a big impact, there are still unconvincing points. Some of her statements are just personal opinions. For me, some of her criticisms are not good and hard to believe maybe because it’s a part of being a writer. Almost all of the contents of the mentioned journals can be related to my experiences. Like how I sometimes act differently and how I do simple things to show my appreciation. Another is how I want to do things in my own way even though several things prevent me and trials may come in my way. All in all, I enjoyed reading the journals. They don’t only show situations but they also teach me lessons on how to live life.